Dr. George Adams is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the University of Florida. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2019, where he taught courses in music theory, music history, media, and aesthetics. Over the past several years, he has also advised research projects across the humanities and social sciences through the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program. His research and teaching interests include form, sound, ecology, technology, and American music. His current projects include a chapter on minimalism and variation for a forthcoming Oxford handbook and an article on "Ecologies of Form in Janelle Monáe's "Say Her Name (Hell You Talmbout)." His developing book project explores how expanded notions of musical form may illuminate the intersections of sound, musical technologies, and social relations, prompting us to rethink the ways we listen to and analyze music.

Oboist Emily Hart is Assistant Professor of Oboe and Aural Skills at the University of Florida. Previously, she has held teaching positions at Houghton University, Nazareth University, Western Illinois University, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Emily received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Oboe Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Richard Killmer. As an educator, Dr. Hart inspires her students to develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence they need to become innovative musicians and citizens. 

Dr. Hart has an extensive portfolio as a solo, chamber, and orchestral performer throughout North America, including performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, The Syracuse Orchestra, and the MostArts Festival Orchestra, and the Peoria Symphony, in addition to frequent contemporary and chamber music engagements. She seeks to curate innovative programs that have something to offer to audiences of all backgrounds, and her recent solo work has focused on the intersection of classical and popular music in new works for oboe and piano.  

Dr. Shannon Lowe is the Assistant Professor of Bassoon and Aural Skills at the University of Florida. Before her arrival at UF, she served as Associate Professor of Bassoon in the Department of Music at Valdosta State University. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Bassoon Performance at SUNY Stony Brook, where she studied with the renowned performer and pedagogue Dr. Frank Morelli. She received her Bachelor of Music Education degree with a Performer's Certificate as well as her Master of Music in Bassoon Performance degree from the University of Florida, under Dr. Arnold Irchai and Dr. Kim Woolly.

Rich Pellegrin’s research examines the significance of the Salzerian analytical tradition with respect to both the classical and jazz idioms. He has presented research at numerous regional, national, and international conferences. His work has been published in Jazz Perspectives, Intégral (forthcoming), ZGMTH (Journal of the Society for Music Theory, Germany), Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy, the Journal of Schenkerian Studies, and The Conversation; published in volumes by the University of Florida Press (forthcoming), Vernon Press (forthcoming), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, and KFU Publishing House; and featured in the NPR segment The Academic Minute. Pellegrin recently served as Guest Editor of a special issue of Jazz Perspectives devoted to John Coltrane. As a jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader, he has released five albums on Origin Records. His record Down was reviewed in Downbeat Magazine, which described “moments of absolute bliss” and wrote, “Pellegrin does as the great pianists do, supplying encouragement and graceful touches in the background, before diving forward to take solos that are by turns florid and cracked, balletic and modern.”

See website: www.richpellegrin.com